Simtopia - The World of the Sims (Zion)
Introduction f Authorial Intentions Billy Sim Knowledge Communities The Community that has built around The Sims is immense. With so many different possibilities in the game, different players have shown their enthusiasm about the game in different ways. One major possibility within the game is the freedom to design. In the newer versions of the game, players are able to create their own clothing as well as houses and families. A direction that many fans have gone is to create these objects and either give them away or sell them online for virtual money. One blogger from Massachusetts, MS3B, even went far enough to create a blog, http://mysims3blog.blogspot.com/, where he and other followers are able to upload new clothing and housing designs for viewers to download. There are even fashion designers who have become famous within The Sims community through their clothing lines such as Juliana's Corner which makes men and women's clothing and Lorandia Sims which is an accessory and shoe line. Fans of the game have come together as a community in many other ways as well. Through online organization and participation, April 2012 was the International Sims 3 Grilled Cheese Month. To participate, Sims fans uploaded videos of their sims eating grilled cheese. A video was put together and made available on Youtube to show all the participants as a way to show thanks. This video is available to the right. For players who are new to the game or as a way to keep updated with new updates to the game, there are many resources online created by fans. These online resources include but are not limited to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims The Sims Wikipedia Page] and [http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_Wiki The Sims Wiki]. On the Wikipedia page, one can find the fact-based information on The Sims. It discusses the different versions and spinoffs as well as information on the 20th Century Fox Film that is currently in pre-production that will be a drama based on the game. The Wiki page offers a more personal and advanced look at the game with featured tutorials, monthly newsletters, community polls, and simology information. For some fans, these well-known Sims fan-sites are too commercial. As a more intimate way to share his knowledge, one dedicated player, Mark Knight, created a video blog where he discusses his monthly exciting moments in the game, The Sims 3. These can be anything from exciting moments his sims went through or any new games or installs that have come out. In the video on the left, Knight discusses a new game that has just come out for The Sims that he received a day later than it was released because he ordered it from a different company. He is clearly dedicated to his sims. Another way that fans of the game come together as a community is to share cheats. The game is created to be as similar as possible to real life. Despite this fact, creators of the game did create ways to get around the difficulty that comes along with real life. These code inputs can allow a player to do anything from earn an endless amount of money to making them not need any food or social interactions to stay alive. When a new version of The Sims is released, the cheats are unknown. However, once players learn the cheats, they join together to share them with each other. The video shown to the right explains how to unlock all possible cheats on the XBox version of The Sims 3. Remediation Traditionally speaking, remediation refers to old media being presented in technologically advanced ways. However, in terms of The Sims, remediation is actually used as a way to move the idea of the game engine to the computer. In other words, the game itself is a way for players to remediate their own lives or fantasies of what their lives could be. According to Tanja Sihvonen, "the emergent narrative structure...makes The Sims a particularly susceptible tool for the purposes of individual redirection and remediation."http://tinyurl.com/cc5vvkn Much like Second Life, players are able to not only create themselves but also what kind of house they want and what kind of job to get. For many people, this can be more exciting than real life.http://tinyurl.com/cc5vvkn Often times, for people who lack social skills or simply want to escape the real world, The Sims is a great way to clear your mind. In the game, there is freedom to look the way you want, be as intellectual or charming as you want, and have the traits you wish you had. In fact, the most popular personality trait used in the game online is to be a great kisser.http://allfacebook.com/facebook-sims_b74970 It is extremely unlikely that the majority of people in the world actually have this trait, but on The Sims, players can be whoever they want to be. We clearly know what players think about. As a way to increase the relationship between game life and real life, EA Games, the creators of The Sims, made The Sims Social which compares and contrasts people to sims as it tracks how they relate to each other online. With 22.2 million users active every month, The Sims Social has plenty of data to show how people act when their decisions will not affect their real life, but they are still able to interact with other real people. As shown on the right, over 29 million secrets have been told on the game, over 160 million gossips shared, and 70 million players have confessed attraction to another player or sim. With The Sims Social, these players are actually interacting with each other which means that these people act as though this is their life. Just like real life, they can flirt, chat, joke, insult, and compliment others. Based on the numbers, though, people are much more open online. With 70 million players confessing physical attraction and sims "woohooing" 680,000 times per day, it is clear people are much more open through this form of remediation.http://allfacebook.com/facebook-sims_b74970 Some players have taken a comedic stand on this remediation. Yes, the game imitates real life but there is only so much a programmer can do to make computer code seem like real life. As a way to show that The Sims may not be as life like as players think of it as, a young fan and his sister poked fun at the unrealistic parts of the game. This is a video that they created as ''The Sims 4: Real Life ''where they acted as if they were being played in the game. The video shows how comically unrealistic parts of the game are by showing real people going through these daily routines that occur on The Sims. Playing house is a timeless game that has always been a social norm for young children to play. However, with the creation of The Sims, pretending to have a life in an alternate reality with chosen traits is no longer just acceptable for kids. The Sims offers life through remediation, something that people who lack social skills in the real world use as a way to interact with others. Links and Resources [http://thesims.com The Sims Website] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims Wikipedia Entry on The Sims] [http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_Wiki The Sims Wiki Page] References